Your One Stop Shop for Food Sensitivity Testing, Education & Support™

In this tasty episode, I interview Registered Dietitian and Certified LEAP Therapist, Jan Patenaude. Jan specializes in the field of integrative nutrition and is one of the pioneers working with blood testing to diagnose and treat food sensitivities. She specifically works with a blood test called MRT®, or Mediator Release Testing. MRT® is a blood test that quantifies the inflammatory response to 150 different foods & food-chemicals. I know we’ve all heard a lot about gluten as causing ill effects for a lot of people but Jan shares a fascinating story about a patient who was deathly ill from an apple sensitivity! Jan will also shed light on the difference between a food allergy, food intolerance, and food sensitivity.

Jan Patenaude, RD, CLT

Jan Patenaude, RD, CLT is the first Certified LEAP Therapist and LEAP Mentor who has been a consultant dietitian since 1986. She co-developed the Certified LEAP Therapist training program in 2006 and was one of Today’s Dietitian’s Top 10 RDs of 2014. Her writing has been published in magazines and journals, including: Today’s Dietitian, Journal of Home Health Care Management Practice, Topics in Clinical Nutrition, Sully’s Living Without Magazine and Overdrive Magazine. Aside from print, Jan has also made many TV and radio appearances.

In her thirty-eight year career, she has consulted in many areas, including: hospital clinical, outpatient and food-service; long term care; home health care; drug/alcohol rehab; hospice; group homes; HMOs; WIC; prisons and jails. She has continued her private practice, at least part time since 1986, done supermarket tours, worked in research at a USDA human research laboratory and subcontracted dietitian services. In many ways, she has seen it all.

She has presented at numerous National, State and District Dietetic Association meetings, including FNCE 2009 and 2014. She’s presented an ADA (now AND) sponsored Webinar, at a national PCOS conference, for the National Kidney Foundation Annual meeting and the Loma Linda Medical University Annual Post Graduate Conference. She was the past New Jersey Dietetic Association Media Rep and had her own radio slot for a live talk show many years ago in Eastern Colorado.

Jan has received the Nutritionists in Complementary Care (now Dietitians in Integrative and Functional Medicine) 2008 “Excellence in Practice Award” for her work supporting colleagues in building their practices and improving patient outcomes. She was also named the University of Minnesota, Crookston, “Outstanding Alumni of 2010.”

Today, she trains and mentors RDs and physicians interested in working with the MRT test and LEAP Diet protocols.

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN IN TODAY’S EPISODE…

2:02 Jan explains how she became a Registered Dietitian and, eventually, a Certified LEAP Therapist

“I’ve been doing this about fifteen years and it’s still fascinating.” – Jan Patenaude

4:14 Jan tells the story of a patient that experienced Cyclical Vomiting Syndrome caused by apples

6:42 Annette and Jan discuss how any food can really be the cause of a food sensitivity

“The classification of immune reactions that we have now is over fifty years old.” – Jan Patenaude

8:14 Jan defines food sensitivity and food intolerance

13:20 Jan talks about how certain reactions in the body can take up to 72 hours, making it difficult to pinpoint the cause of the reaction, and how MRT® (Mediator Release Testing) can help